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Work, parenting, creative hobbies: We all want to continuously improve, to get better at the things we care about doing. In this talk, educator Eduardo Brice๑o reveals a simple way to structure your time so you can always keep learning.

I think there's some very useful lessons for us all in that talk (certainly for me !) as regards our collecting : both in the learning mode (e.g. private research and reading) and in the performance mode (e.g when giving talks on SBs - or, on a smaller scale, when writing on the Forum.)

Though not many of us often give talks on subject like snuff bottles ( i.e. in the performance zone ), some of us do occasionally share life / working experiences.The TED talk does highlight the need for all of us to find time for the learning zone,like the Chinese adage ' learn as long as one lives ( 活到老，学到老 ）。

In the area of our interests, since Richard Baey initiated the Sunday tea-time meeting of collectors, I have learnt a lot as we view and exchange views on the bottles we bring along. Yesterday afternoon, I could sense my own level of appreciation went up when I handle and examine some of the bottles brought bythe other 4 collectors ( I was in the learning zone ! )

You really have a great VMIPB -collecting community there in S'Pore - for which thanks to Richard Baey, a true stalwart if ever there was one (from my visits to Richard's home it seems he has twice as many books and catalogs on SBs than actual bottles - and he does have a LOT of bottles)

That TED talk really taught me some lessons ! One is never too old enough to learn !

But I think I can honestly say I always applied those TED-talk lessons because I really (really) put in about 2 years full-time work = 4,000 hours* in my spare time (spread over 8 years elapsed time 2006 - 2014) working on building my data base and studying, reading, copying, scanning book after book after book on VMIPBs and then cropping/ titling/ filing every VMIPB pic jpg by artist.

The 2014 ICSBS presentation on VMIPBs, which you all can read in the side bar "Contemporary Schools Of Inside Painting", took me at least 2 months full-time work, spread over about 8 months elapsed time (not to mention the time my PA devoted gratis to help me make the complicated charts ! )

I'm slowly getting back into the swing of the Forum after a voluntary "time out" caused by various factors.

But once back in - it's fun to "swim in the deep" with you guys

I only have one plea for those others reading this .... please let's keep our personal stuff (and the woffle !) in the Lounge and let's not mess up the specific topic areas with personal stuff -tempting though it often is to do so.

The Lounge was created (partly by my own request) as THE place to hang out and share the personal stuff

CheersPeter

* The average working year in any normal company is about 2,000 hours, taking into account working hours/week, vacation time, public holidays etc

You are making me jealous... I so wish there were other collectors nearby in North Carolina. I always learn from other collectors by talking as well has handling beautiful bottles. I am so happy to be included in the Northern VA Group when they meet, but it is never more than twice a year.

I will happily join a monthly gathering and any day of the week /weekend is OK for me because I am retired and I have no have big family weekend commitments (IF I am in HK, which often I am not because these days I spend almost half my time at our second home in China)

I'm also wiling to "bring a bottle or two" - I can imagine that bringing a few hand-picked bottles would be a lot of fun and also much more focused interest than visiting someone's home where one is faced with a bewildering display of bottles

I'm also willing to bridge to the ICSBS members in HK as long as I still subscribe to the ICSBS (not much longer)

Like Peter and Jo, I am quite envious that you Singaporean collectors manage to organize these "tea parties"! And then I read that the idea may take off in Hong Hong.

But after a few moments I thought.....Why limit a regular meet-up to geographic location? I use Skype a lot to chat with friends and colleagues in group calls, often with camera, so we can all see each other. And it's completely free.

Why can't we extend this to a regular get-together to chat about and show (by web-cam) our bottles?

I'm not too IT savvy, so perhaps someone can propose how this could be set up.